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Current opportunities

CAPE Sharing session: Knowledge Exchange Events

There are lots of different ways academics and policymakers are working together and trying to help ensure the best available evidence is properly informing policymaking, but are some ways better than others?

Join us on the 7 June (10-11.30) where we will hear from a range of policy partners who will share their experience and insights on different types of knowledge exchange events in academic-policy engagement. This will include hearing from those working on and with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Islington Council, Defra and CAPE’s evaluation team.

The session will open up to discussion to all attendees to explore what works for academic-policy knowledge exchange events. A summary blog will be produced as an output from the event.

Register for the CAPE sharing session on knowledge exchange events

Policy Challenge Fund: Islington Council and a New Deal for Workers

CAPE is delighted to invite staff at UCL and the University of Cambridge to submit an application in response to Islington Council’s policy challenge. The proposal will be based on developing an evidence base which will underpin the development of a New Deal for Workers in Islington.

Funding of between £5k and £15k is available.

Deadline 6th May 2022 23:59

Find out more and how to apply

New Policy Fellowship with Digital Nottingham

CAPE is delighted to announce a policy fellowship opportunity with Digital Nottingham. The successful candidate will work with the University of Nottingham’s Digital Nottingham team to identify opportunities for collaboration and co-production with local and regional policy partners and community organisations to understand the pressing challenges they face and the data they hold; identifying relevant digital and research expertise in the University and developing a policy facing strategy for Digital Nottingham that focusses on the areas where the University can make the biggest difference.

The Fellowship is open candidates from policy making or policy facing organisations with relevant expertise. It is offered as a secondment on a full- or part-time basis for 9 months in the first instance, with the possibility of extension.

Deadline: 12th April 2022 23:59

Find out more and how to apply

CAPE Collaboration Funding

CAPE Collaboration Funding provides up to £25k funding for collaborative projects between academics and policy professionals. It is open to academic and research staff at CAPE University Partners (non-CAPE partners may apply as CO-I).

The fund operates on rolling deadlines.

Next deadline: 22 April 2022 23:59

Find out more about the CAPE Collaboration Fund

You can keep up-to-date with our latest opportunities by signing up to our newsletter. Read about ways you can get involved with CAPE below.

Sign up for the CAPE newsletter

How to get involved with CAPE

We are always interested in having conversations with those who work in public policy (whether at national, regional or local levels) or public policy relevant organisations to see how we could work with you. CAPE has four mechanisms through which we are exploring academic-policy engagement:

  • Policy fellowships
  • Collaborative funding
  • Knowledge exchange events
  • Training for policy professionals and academics

    • We can work with you to explore whether these mechanisms would work for your organisation and how we could employ these most effectively.

    Note that as a research project we will be evaluating our activities throughout and expect those with whom with collaborate to contribute to this evaluation.

    To discuss getting involved with CAPE, email us.

    Academic, research, and professional services staff at CAPE partner universities can get involved in CAPE in a number of ways:

  • Apply for fellowships to be based in policy organisations. These will be advertised on this page and through our newsletter.
  • Meet policy fellows from policy organisations to discuss their policy priorities and your area of expertise. Get in touch with your institutional coordinator to find out if a policy fellow aligns with your research.
  • Attend knowledge exchange events such as roundtables or workshops with policy stakeholders.
  • Apply for the CAPE collaboration fund. Please note that professional service staff are eligible to be CO-I on these projects.
  • Be involved with the CAPE university training scheme when it launches


    • We welcome involvement from staff at all levels of seniority and particularly (self-identifying) women, disabled, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent staff as they are underrepresented in academic-policy engagement. Previous policy experience is not needed to be involved with CAPE.

    Opportunities will be advertised on this page when available and also disseminated through our newsletter.

    Each CAPE partner university has a dedicated coordinator who is responsible for coordinating CAPE activity across their institution. Opportunities for staff at specific institutions will be disseminated by the appropriate coordinator. All coordinators welcome opportunities to discuss ways to be involved so please do get in touch with them.

    Find out who your institutional coordinator is.

    At the moment, due to CAPE’s remit, we are not developing initiatives with students specifically. However, we believe in encouraging students to learn about academic policy engagement during their career so recommend signing up for our newsletter to find out about our academic policy learnings.

    Although some CAPE opportunities are open to CAPE university partner staff only, we are happy to hear from colleagues at non CAPE partner universities about how we might learn together and to discuss if there are shared interests that we could explore relevant to the CAPE project.

    If you are a member of staff a non-CAPE partner you can:

  • Attend CAPE knowledge exchange events when these are public events
  • Work with colleagues in CAPE member HEIs to develop joint application for the CAPE Collaboration Fund as CO-I (when the PI is at CAPE member HEI). Note that professional services staff are eligible to be a CO-I on this funding.
  • Sign up to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with our learnings from the project
  • Listen to our podcast and follow us on twitter to find out about CAPE learnings


    • Public knowledge exchange events will be advertised here and also disseminated through our newsletter. 

    At the moment, due to CAPE’s remit, we are not developing initiatives with students specifically. However, we believe in encouraging students to learn about academic policy engagement during their career so recommend signing up for our newsletter to find out about our academic policy learnings.